The Hamas Squad
- Steven Teplitsky
- Dec 31, 2023
- 12 min read
“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the
United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true
faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any
mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully
discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me
God.”
The following is a fictional account of a Question and Answer session
before one of the standing committees of Congress........
US Congress Q & A
Question: Is Hamas considered a terrorist organization by the State
Department and the US Government and other governments around the world?
Answer: The United States designated Hamas as a terrorist organization in
1995, as did Canada in November 2002, and the United Kingdom in November
2021. The European Union so designated Hamas’s military wing in 2001 and,
under US pressure, designated Hamas in 2003. Hamas challenged this
decision, which was upheld by the European Court of Justice in July 2017. Japan
and New Zealand have designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist
organization. The organization is banned in Jordan. – Wikipedia
Question: What is the organization American Muslims for Palestine?
Answer: American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is an anti-Israel organization
with strong ties to pro-Hamas individuals and organizations. While AMP refers
to itself as an educational organization focused primarily on raising awareness
for Palestinian causes, it has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as
“the leading organization providing anti-Zionist training” in America.
Multiple individuals associated with AMP have ties to organizations that have
been implicated by the federal government for offering support to terrorist
entities such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. At a 2014 AMP
conference, a lecturer invited attendees to “navigate the fine line between legal
activism and material support for terrorism.”
AMP was founded in 2006 by Hatem Al Bazian, a controversial Palestinian-
American professor at the University of California at Berkeley with ties to
multiple anti-Israel organizations. Bazian gave a speech in 2004 in which he
called for an “intifada,” or uprising, in the United States.
AMP is organized as a “corporate nonprofit,” and is exempt from publicly
disclosing financial details on federal tax forms.
AMP receives funds through its fiscal sponsor, Americans for Justice in
Palestine Educational Foundation Inc. (AJP), a 501(c)(3) organization. AMP
and AJP are distinct entities despite sharing offices and officers, and funding
similar work.
Between 2012 and 2016, Americans for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims
for Palestine’s tax exempt arm, took in $3.6 million in donations. It claims to be
supported entirely by donations from the public and does not disclose
donations by any other organization. In 2016, AJP spent more than $950,000 on
its activities, which included an annual pro-Palestinian conference in the U.S.,
print materials, grass-roots organizing, and a real estate purchase of $269,000.
Question: Who are the key people in AMP?
Answer: HATEM AL BAZIAN is the founder and president of both American
Muslims for Palestine and Americans for Justice in Palestine.
RAFEEQ JABER has been identified in the Palestinian press as the “spiritual
father” of American Muslims for Palestine.
ABDEL BASSET HAMAYEL served as secretary general for the Islamic
Association for Palestine an organization found civilly liable in 2014 in a federal
district court for offering material support for Hamas.
OSAMA ABUIRSHAID is American Muslims for Palestine’s National
Coordinator and National Policy Director. In August 2015, the United States
Citizenship and Immigration Services deemed Abuirshaid “ineligible for
naturalization” for failing to disclose his connections with Islamic Association
for Palestine , the organization found liable for supporting Hamas. -wikipedia
Question: What is a lobby group?
Answer: Lobbyists are political professionals who work to lawfully
influence policies, decisions, and actions of government officials (typically
legislators & regulatory agency members). Lobbying firms are often viewed with
suspicion, but this industry is part of the Constitution of the United States & is
protected by the First Amendment. -inthistogetheramerica.org
Question: Are American Muslims for Palestine and Americans for Justice in
Palestine registered lobby groups?
Answer: No.
Question: Is AMP and AJP connected to Hamas, a registered Terrorist
organization?
Answer: American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is the leading organization
providing anti-Zionist training and education to students and Muslim
community organizations in the country. Founded in 2005, AMP promotes
extreme anti-Israel views and has at times provided a platform for anti-
Semitism under the guise of educating Americans about “the just cause of
Palestine and the rights of self-determination. – adl.org
AMP has its organizational roots in the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP),
an anti-Semitic group that served as the main propaganda arm for Hamas in the
United States until it was dissolved in 2004. Since its creation in 2005, AMP
continues to work closely with some former IAP leaders who currently hold
positions as AMP board members. – adl.org
Question: Would it be considered illegal or unethical if a Member of
Congress associated with a member of a terrorist affiliated group?
Answer: Maybe that question should be addressed to Rashida Tlaib and
her SQUAD.
On November 28, 2023, the UK’s Daily Mail published the following headline
and points of an article written by Harriet Alexander....
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Squad’ firebrand Rashida Tlaib’s astonishing links to shady Hamas
group held liable for DEATH of an American Jew: Charity boss co-hosted her
Congress campaign event... and more of her backers have clear ties to
murderous terrorists
Tlaib campaign event co-host Rafeeq Jaber refused to condemn Hamas’
Jaber was president of the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), which
IAP then dissolved but is alleged to have reemerged as American
Muslims for Palestine, which has backed Rep. Rashida Tlaib
According to the Daily Mail, Harriet Alexander reports on a meeting which
Rashida Tlaib had in 2018. She reports as follows “that Rashida Tlaib had the
crowd eating out of her hand. It was March 2018, and the hookah lounge in a
working-class suburb outside of Chicago was packed. Warm and engaging,
switching frequently between English and Arabic, Tlaib – a Michigan State
representative with larger ambitions – pleaded for out-of-state donations to help
her become the first Palestinian American in Congress.”
“She unashamedly told the audience that her Detroit constituents often declared:
‘Rashida is a warrior, and this is a war we’re in.’
“Sitting in the front row, Rafeeq Jaber listened intently, seemingly impressed and
knowing a thing or two about raising money to wage war. For Jaber’s now-defunct
charity, the Islamic Association for Palestine, was found legally liable for financing
the Hamas murder of an American and ordered to pay a $165 million settlement to
the victim’s family.”
The Daily Mail reports that surprised by this connection, the journalist
continues to write that “Jaber’s 2018 attendance – confirmed to DailyMail.com by
a national security research institute – at an event for a future-U.S. Congresswoman
would likely shock most Americans. But he was far more than simply a guest. Jaber
was a prominent host of Tlaib campaign gatherings, and he remains unrepentant
today – even refusing to condemn Hamas when asked to do so by DailyMail.com.”
The Daily Mail article adds..
“What’s more, he is not Tlaib’s only major supporter with alleged ties to the vicious
killers now responsible for the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
There’s Wisconsin furniture salesman Salah Sarsour, who co-hosted a party for
Tlaib in July 2018 in Milwaukee. His name appears on the official Tlaib invite to the
event.Sarsour is known to U.S. counter terror experts as being a suspected
fundraiser in one of the largest pro-Hamas money laundering operations in U.S.
history.”
“Then there’s Abdelbaset Hamayel, whose name is listed alongside Jaber’s as a co-
host on an official ‘Rashia Tlaib For Congress’ invitation to a meet and greet at the
Jerusalem Banquet restaurant in Bridgeview, Illinois in July 2018. Hamayel was a
purported point person for another charity, named KindHearts, that was accused by
the U.S. Treasury Department of financing terrorism in 2006.”
“Tlaib’s defenders claim it is unreasonable to expect her to know the background of
all the guests at her campaign events or the 45,000 donors named on her Federal
Election Commission records. That’s fair enough. Yet she certainly should know the
identities of her co-hosts.”
Finally The Daily Mail’s Harriet Alexander provides a brief history of the ties
which Rashida Tlaib’s backers have to Hamas.
The Daily Mail article continues that “Perhaps most troubling of all is the thread
tying these Tlaib’s campaign boosters together, as a Daily Mail.com investigation
has now revealed that each of them are connected to an alleged pro-Hamas
network that – to this day – is under investigation for supporting terror.”
She continues to examine the history of Hamas’ infiltration into America with a
lengthy but clear analysis of the players behind Hamas in America, as follows
“DECEIVE & CAMOUFLAGE’: HAMAS’ PATRONS IN AMERICA
The origins of the pro-Hamas network in America can be traced to an
October 1993 meeting at a Marriott Courtyard hotel in Philadelphia.
Shortly after the fledging terror group launched its first suicide bombing,
killing one and injuring 10 people at a rest area on the Jordan Valley
Highway in the West Bank, sympathetic activists met in Philly for a secret
three-day conflab.
They anticipated that the U.S. government would declare Hamas a ‘foreign
terror organization’ – which it did in 1997 – and block the flow of donations
to the group.
The participants debated how they could continue providing support to
Hamas, and they knew they had to be careful: U.S. law enforcement may be
listening.
So, the attendees were circumspect – pronouncing the terror group’s name
backward as ‘Samah’ or simply as ‘the movement’.
The paranoia was justified. The Bureau was listening.
FBI agents had bugged the meeting, and subsequent recordings were used
to convict some of the participants for backing terrorism.
‘I swear by Allah that war is deception,’ one senior leader said, according to
a FBI transcript. ‘Deceive, camouflage, pretend that you’re leaving while
you’re walking that way. Deceive your enemy.’
Deceive they did.
As Hamas found its footing, associates poured money into its coffers and it
worked until the network was picked apart by American authorities.”
“‘THE FAÇADE’: PRO-HAMAS CHARITIES BUSTED
Federal agents raided and locked down the headquarters of the Texas-
based Holy Land Foundation of Relief and Development (HLF) on suspicion
of fundraising for Hamas in 2001.
Seven years later, the Justice Department secured convictions against HLF
and its leadership for illegally funneling approximately $12.4 million to the
terrorists.
Five HLF leaders were sentenced to a collective 180 years in federal prison
and the faux charity was shuttered.
To date – it is the largest successful terrorism financing prosecution in U.S.
history. But not everyone allegedly involved in the scheme faced justice.
Salah Sarsour – the furniture store owner whose name appears on an
invitation for a Tlaib campaign event in Milwaukee in July of 2018 –
allegedly helped raise money for HLF, according to a 2001 FBI
memorandum.
He was never charged.
And HLF’s pro-Hamas mission allegedly carried on.
The U.S. Treasury Department claimed that HLF simply dissolved and
reconstituted itself another as another charity called KindHearts, which was
based in Ohio.
‘KindHearts is the progeny of Holy Land Foundation and Global Relief
Foundation, which attempted to mask their support for terrorism behind the
façade of charitable giving,’ Treasury officials claimed when they froze
KindHearts assets in 2006.
At the time, KindHearts’ representative[i] in Illinois and Wisconsin was
Abdelbaset Hamayel – another Tlaib campaign co-host.
KindHearts challenged the order shut down, and a court in 2010 ruled the
government action was unconstitutional as insufficient time was given to
allow KindHearts to challenge the decision.
In 2011 KindHearts settled with the government, denying involvement in
terrorism financing but agreeing to dissolve their organization.
The alleged network was increasingly exposed. And the murder of an
American blew it wide open and into a U.S. courtroom.”
“ISLAMIC CHARITY FOUND GUILTY IN MURDER OF AMERICA"
David Boim was born in Brooklyn, New York, but on May 13, 1996, he was
living in Jerusalem and studying at a yeshiva.
It was the day he was murdered.
The 17-year-old student was waiting with friends at a bus stop near Beit El
in the West Bank when two Hamas terrorists opened fire on the crowd from
a moving car.
One student, Yair Greenbaum, was hit in the chest and wounded. David was
shot in the head and killed.
David’s devastated parents took their grief to civil court and, in 2000, after
years of preparation they brought a case under a 1992 law that permits
American victims to sue anyone providing material support to terror
groups.
Named as a defendant in that lawsuit was the Islamic Association of
Palestine (IAP), which for decades had operated out of a nondescript office
in a bland strip mall in the Chicago suburb of Palos Hills.
Its benign appearance belied the allegation that it was founded in the 1980s
by Hamas’s de facto foreign minister, Mousa Abu Marzook.
In the lawsuit, Rafeeq Jaber – the man sitting front row at Tlaib’s 2018
hookah lounge campaign event – was identified as IAP’s president.
Jaber, at the time, denied any involvement in Boim’s death. ‘We are guilty
because we happen to be Muslims, happen to be Palestinians,’ he said.
‘This is a sad day for justice.’
A federal judge saw it differently and found IAP and its co-defendants
legally responsible for the murder of David Boim, because they helped
finance the terrorists.
IAP and its co-defendants were ordered to pay the Boim family $156 million
in damages, marking the first decision of its kind under the anti-terrorism
law.
Only IAP didn’t pay up.
Instead, the group closed its doors – or at least it claimed to.
According to a number of antiterror experts, like former U.S. Treasury
Department analyst Jonathan Schanzer, IAP merely changed its name and
re-emerged under another – American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
That claim is currently the focus of an on-going lawsuit as the Boims allege
that AMP is the alter ego of IAP.
And if the Boim’s contention is proven true, it would be truly disturbing –
the least of which for Democrats – because AMP has thrown its weight
behind several Democratic members of Congress, including Rashida
Tlaib.”
“TLAIB’S UNREPENTANT, PRO-HAMAS CAMPAIGN CO-HOST
On Wednesday, November 15th, Jonathan Schanzer appeared before the
House Ways and Means Committee and took the government to task for its
failure to act on his warnings about Hamas financers in America.
After all, Schanzer, who worked as a terrorism finance analyst for the
Treasury Department from 2004 to 2007, has testified on this topic twice
before.
‘The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), the Islamic
Association for Palestine (IAP), and KindHearts for Charitable Development
were three organizations implicated in financing Hamas between 2001 and
2011,’ Schanzer cautioned lawmakers. ‘Many of them have gravitated to a
new organization called American Muslims for Palestine.’
Despite Schanzer’s previous testimonies delivered seven years ago, AMP’s
influence has only grown. The group’s lobbying arm now openly seeks to
influence – and elect – members of Congress.
Tlaib has spoken at multiple AMP events, including a 2019 annual gala in
Chicago, a 2020 chapter meeting in St. Louis, Missouri and a range of
online gatherings. Prominent AMP members have aided her congressional
campaign.
Salah Sarsour – that alleged Holy Land fundraiser – is now identified as an
AMP National Board Member and the director of the group’s tax-exempt
charitable arm.
Abdelbaset Hamayel – that purported KindHearts point man – is identified
as AMP’s Executive Director on the Facebook page of AMP’s Chicago
chapter and is reportedly active in the organization.
Finally, AMP’s AJP Educational Foundation lists Rafeeq Jaber – the former
president of IAP – as its tax preparer on recent IRS filings.”
The article continues....
“To this day, Jaber works out of that same nondescript office building in
Palos Hills. When contacted by phone, Jaber told DailyMail.com that he was
exasperated by repeated calls to condemn Hamas and refused to do so.
‘Whatever Hamas did, it does not justify this,’ he said, referring to the
October 7 massacre and Israeli’s invasion of Gaza.
Asked if he would condemn both Hamas and Israel, Jaber again demurred.
‘Condemnation is not going to change anything,’ he stated and defended
his support for Tlaib.
AMP and Tlaib, however, don’t appear to be fazed by the attention.
When contacted for comment by DailyMail.com, Congresswoman Tlaib’s
office did not answer.
And just two weeks after Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, AMP’s
representatives were back on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers on their
annual ‘Advocacy Day’.
Rashida Tlaib’s picture was featured on their flier.”
terror-fundraiser-campaign.html
This article from the Daily Mail was a “breath of fresh air” in a world
overflowing with anti-Israel journalists.
Jon Levine is another brave journalist. In an article recently published in
the New York Post, the headline read...
Greg Meeks, ‘Squad’ took thousands from nonprofit under investigation
for funding Hamas
The article, which was published on Nov. 11, 2023 reports that Tlaib’s other
Squad member “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and members of her progressive
House “Squad” received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from a
nonprofit currently under investigation for potentially financing Hamas
terrorism.”
The New York Post reports that “last month Virginia Attorney General Jason
Miyares announced American Muslims for Palestine was being probed for
“allegations that the organization may have used funds raised for impermissible
purposes under state law, including benefitting or providing support to terrorist
organizations.”
The reporter explains that “the group is also known as AJP Educational
Foundation Inc. and that the complaint linked to a May 2022 lawsuit which accused
American Muslims for Palestine of “providing indirect support for Hamas”
Mr. Levine provides more information about Hamas funding for members of
Congress. He reports that “in 2021, AMP’s executive director, Osama Abu Irshaid,
donated $3,000 to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), according to records. Meeks is
the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has been dogged by
corruption accusations for years. A year later, Irshaid gave $500 to Rep. Rashida
Tlaib (D-Mich.) — who was censured after publicly defending Hamas and calling for
the destruction of Israel. He gave a smattering of smaller donations to other Squad
members, including AOC ($105); Missouri Rep. Cori Bush ($56); Minnesota Rep.
Ilhan Omar ($56), and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley ($31.).”
The New York Post article goes on to report that “Salah Sarsour, an AMP
national board member, added another $1,000 to Tlaib in 2019, while Dr. Hatem
Al-Bazian, who is listed as AMP’s chairman, has given Omar $1,250 over the
years.”
And the newspaper draws the web even tighter when he quotes Tlaib, “The
work AMP and all Palestinian advocacy organizations have been doing has
never been more important,” Tlaib says in a quote featured on the AMP website.
In AMP’s scorecard of New York state lawmakers, only AOC and Rep. Jamaal
Bowman received an A rating.
Even before the Virginia probe, American Muslims for Palestine had long been
hotbed of antisemitic activity, according to the Anti-Defamation League. On
Oct. 7 — the day Hamas terrorists massacred roughly 1,400 Israeli civilians —
the group put out a statement declaring that “Israeli violence is the root cause
of violence and unrest in the region.”
He notes that “AMP also works closely with Students for Justice in
Palestine — whose founder is AMP board member Hatem Al-Bazian — a radical
student organization which has been banned by Brandeis University and the
entire state university system of Florida for supporting Hamas.”
Mr. levine reports that other members of Congress are proud NOT to be
connected to the Squad members.
He writes...
“It comes as no surprise that members of the Hamas Caucus and other radical left-
wing Democrats have received significant donations from AJP Educational
Foundation Inc., also known as American Muslims for Palestine, a nonprofit that is
now being investigated for financing terrorism,” said upstate NY Congresswoman
Claudia Tenney (R-Finger Lakes). “I am beyond honored to have received an F
rating from this terrorist organization due to my commitment to Israel.”
nonprofit-under-investigation-for-funding-hamas
Back to our Q & A.
As a member of Congress is it legal to accept donations from
known terrorist organizations?
Is it ethical to do so?
Is it treason?
Remember your
Oath of Office!
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